The art of motherhood involves much silent, unobtrusive self-denial, an hourly devotion which finds no detail too minute.
 Honoré de Balzac, Letters of Two Brides (1841). copy citation

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Author Honoré de Balzac
Source Letters of Two Brides
Topic devotion self-denial motherhood
Date 1841
Language English
Reference
Note Translated by R. S. Scott
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1941/1941-h/1941-h.htm

Context

“A mother, who is really a mother, is never free.
There is my answer to your question why I do not write. Besides the management of the estate, I have the upbringing of two children on my hands.
The art of motherhood involves much silent, unobtrusive self-denial, an hourly devotion which finds no detail too minute. The soup warming before the fire must be watched. Am I the kind of woman, do you suppose, to shirk such cares? The humblest task may earn a rich harvest of affection. How pretty is a child's laugh when he finds the food to his liking!” source
Original quote

Meaning and analysis

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